Drivers

Diesel Spikes to More Than $4, Crude Prices Moderate

February 27, 2012
• by Staff

The average U.S. diesel price is up to $4.051 after a spike of 9 cents, and gas prices increased an average of 13 cents, reports the Energy Information Administration in its weekly Gas and Fuel Update.
More truckers are seeing this as diesel is again at $4 a gallon. (Photo by Jim Park)

This is the first time the average diesel fuel price has been more than $4 since November 2011. This is the fifth week of price increases for diesel, and in the past five weeks, the average U.S. diesel price has increased more than 20 cents. Compared to a year ago, diesel prices are up by an average of 33 cents.

The West Coast saw the biggest surge in diesel prices with a 16.2-cent average increase to $4.326 from $4.164.

Bloomberg reported that ultra-low sulfur diesel supplies might be tight in the U.S. East Coast during the next year due to refinery shutdowns and transportation constraints limiting shipping from the Gulf Coast. In a report, the EIA said that diesel will be "the most challenging product to replace as there are few alternative supply sources outside the U.S. Gulf Coast."

Gas prices this week rose to $3.721 from $3.591. The biggest increase occurred in the West Coast, which saw an almost 23-cent spike. Prices in the West Coast are up a whopping 50 cents from this time last year.

Oil prices fell slightly this week, affected by Western nations' fears of Iran building a nuclear weapon as well as the dollar strengthening and concerns that high oil process might limit economic growth.

Crude oil fell $1.21 and settled at $108.56 a barrel. Brent crude for April fell $1.30 to $124.17.

KeepTruckin is fast-growing company that specializes in providing electronic logging and fleet management solutions for owner-operators and small carriers. It recently announced a new round of capital to fund its expansion. We spoke to KeepTruckin Co-founder and CEO Shoaib Makani about where they came from and where they're going.

A quarterly survey of a varied panel of trucking fleets finds continued strong plans to buy more trucks, especially among larger fleets, and among private fleets looking to address capacity and rate issues – but those truck orders are in many cases about other things than adding capacity, because drivers continue to be in short supply.